THE GROWTH OF GREAT CITIES.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1578, 25 February 1887, Page 3

THE GROWTH OF GREAT CITIES.

Notwithstanding the circumstantial account! that have been handed down

from psst ages in regard to the enormous size and population of the cities of ant:quity, there need not be any hesitation in asserting that there were never before so many large cities io the world as there are at present. If Rome in the time of the Emperor Claudius had, as alleged, nearly seven millions of inhabitants, it is remarkable that for more than a thousand years after the fall of that great city there was no city in Europe with so mary as one million people. Indeed, at the beginning of the present century, there was no city in Europe with tbat number of inhabitants, the most populous being 865.000 persons. There are now five European cities with upwards of a million inhabitaLts, the first two of which cot tain e aggregate 7,000,000 persons. London is easily at the head of all modern cities, yet it has added five times as much to its population during the present century as it did during tie previous thousand years. There is a difficulty about stating the exact population of London, because the metropolis is not a city in the ordinary sense, but an aggregations of towns, an overspreading, overgrown aggregate of houses and streets, which is constantly invading new territory and covering it with buildings. Thus the old City of London had at the last census but 50,526 inhabitants. London, within the Registar General's tables of mortality had 3.514,57 l people; the London School Board District had 3,832,441 people, while the London of the metropolitan and city police districts had 4,761,012 inhabitants.

The latter figures may be taken as the proper p* pulation of London, regarded as a community. Its increase during th» previous t«n years wns 880,000, tt the rate of 23 per cent. It is easy to figure up what tVe continuance of such a rate of increase would finally lead to. It would give London at the next census nearly six millions of inhabitants, and at the next succeeding one seven and a quarter millions. Of course this rate of increase may not be maintained, but that is a matter on which no one can speak with certainty. When London had two millions inhabitants everyone said that this wonderful growth must soon Btop; but since then London has been growing larger than ever. There, if anywhere, will be solved the problem as to how many people can exist in one great city. Paris, once well abreast of Loadon in population, now takes second place, and will have to go down to third before many decades. Its population at the last census was 2,230 900, it having increased about 570,000 during tho previous twenty vers. Its rate of increase is, therefore, comparatively slow, and, as the population of France is nearly stationary, it must necessarily be slow in the future. New York is row tSp third of the great cities of the world, leaving out of consideration the Cities of China, of whose population there is no reliable enumeration. The position of New York as tHemart of a vast continent is un* quailed, but the narrowness of Manhattan Island and the inferior facilities for rapid transit prior to the era of elevated railwxys have been against it. Its population of 1,2u6,000 at tSe Ins*" census should have grown to 1,550,000 at the next census, and to 2 000,000 at the succeeding one. If the population of New York was reckoned on the same basis as that of London, it would take in Brooklvn, Jersey City and a number of small adjacent towns, with a united population at tho last census of 2,250.000. The aggregated community thus'indicated is growing at the rate ot 30 per cent every ten years, so that the total population gathered here at he next census will be nearly 3,000,000, and at the following census nearly 4,000,000. Following New York the great cities of the world that have a population of more than one million are Berlin, 1,122,000 ; Vienna, 1,630,000 ; and Constantinople 1,075,000. The capital of Russia has only 875,000, and the other European capitals, not already mentioned, will fall much below that figure. No doubt St. Petersburg will, before the next census, have pamed the one million limit and become entitled to rank as one of the greatest cities in the world.

Of citie* which rank but second in their countries the greatest in PniUdelphia, with its 847,000 inhabitants at the last censu*. and which will probably reach 1,060,000 at the next enumeration. The United States will then b6 the only country in the world with two cities of more than a million inhabitant*, and by the succeeding census Brooklyn will be added to the list to form a third, and Chicago ako probably to form a fourth. By that time, however, Moscow will have passed the one million limit, and also Glasgow and Liverpool. At the last census there were in Great Britain and Ireland twentyseven cities and towns with upward of 100,000 inhabitants, an increase of seven over the number at the previous census. In the United States there were at the last census eighteen cities and towns with upward of 100,000 i inhabitants, an increase of four over the previous census. No other country in Europe had so many cities of that size as America can s iow; Germany had fourteen, Franc 3 ten, Austria-Hungary five, and Boisia

nine ; British India has eighteen cities with 100,000 inhabitants and upwards. It is certainly remarkable that " the glorious Republic" should be in advance of such countries as Fiance, Germany, and Austria, with respect to large cities, and so close upon the heels of England, which, however, still retains a good lead, and some of whose younger towns are extremely vigorous in their growth. Oldham may be taken as a striking example of this class, it having nearly doubled its population in ten years, the increase being from 82,000 to 152,000.